Fall 2014: Tap Your Spring 

Water brings the gift of life. Without it, our blue-green planet would not be... er... blue-green. We come from the water. We descended as water from the womb. We are more liquid than solid. We follow the water. Our survival is dependent on our relationship with water and its sources.

I used to be a river guide. Whitewater is rated on a 6 level classification scale (1 is a few ripples and 6 is certain death). Classification varies depending on the amount of water that is flowing. Increased volume does not always mean increased difficulty. Sometimes the hazards wash over with a lot of water and no longer propose much difficulty at all. Sometimes less water exposes more obstacles and makes certain rapids more technical and difficult. The skill of effectively applying one's knowledge to whitewater navigation is the key and this skill is also the yoga.  

 

In Southern California, we are feeling the effects of our long-term lack of water very acutely. Our culture hides the cracked and scarred earth with green lawns and swimming pools, but I am constantly reminded to conserve and appreciate.

In my life, this metaphor is very alive.  Tracy and I are pacing our way through a long drought, while simultaneously dog paddling around in the relentlessly rising floodwater of YOGAMAZÉ's fast-paced growth. We have long suffered insufficient resources...not enough time, not enough Noah and not enough Tracy, and now, despite the drought, we are attempting to sufficiently manage a virtual monsoon of organizational development, an abundance of interest in our vision, and exponential spikes in virtually every aspect of our business.  I am not complaining.  These are welcome problems-- and yet they are still problems. Without proper catchment systems, something precious is likely to be lost.   We are thus vigorously hard at work detailing and putting into place a vast network of integrated flood (and drought) management systems. My biggest work in this season of polarities is to be more proactive and measured, and less a victim of this quick-fire environment.    

Whether the rivers are flowing and abundant, and irrespective of whether the streams are drying up, we each have an inner wellspring, always present.  HOW I tap this spring, WHEN I tap this spring, IF I tap this spring, and of course how best to ensure feasibility and viability...these questions are of great interest to me.     

At work, we have been articulating multiple arms of curriculum within the YOGAMAZÉ school, and in the meaningful differences of styles and levels of classes. There is a trend in contemporary American postural yoga to reduce classes to mixed-level and to try to fit everything and everyone into one class. I'm pushing back against this current, with the passion of an educator and life-long student and lover of adventure and measurable progress.  

Our YOGAMAZÉ Studio in Los Angeles is FINALLY opening up for weekly classes. This has been a project long and careful in the making. A reservoir of creative energy has been building and patiently waiting to be released. Beginning October 15, we will be offering a schedule of 15 classes weekly. We are in excellent company with a roster of amazing and talented teachers all of whom have studied and collaborated with me over many years. I will be teaching twice on Wednesday mornings, travel schedule permitting.  

Douglas Brooks is again gracing us with his wisdom and raise-the-bar style of teaching October 10-12. We will open the flood gates and drink from the fire hydrant! The topic: Bhagavad Gita.

Teacher Trainings have been at high-water. I am deeply honored and humbled to have guided so many journeys of learning. In October, our current intermediate training class will culminate a year of intense study. November will see the graduation of our current level one teacher training class, here in town. Meanwhile, students of our introductory training have graduated in Riyadh and Bali, and are soon graduating in Jakarta, Indonesia. Introductory trainings are also in various stages of Fall launching in Flagstaff, Seattle, Riyadh and Portland. If you are called to the path of service, to the path of sharing what you love, join us! Our graduates have inspired me repeatedly with their dedication and commitment to yoga, their studentship and their chosen teaching paths.

I am ever prouder of our incredible group of Apprentices and our YOGAMAZÉ Emissaries.  Rocky Heron recently brought his unique approach to YOGAMAZÉ to Japan.  Check out our blog and read Rocky's account of this magical time. Also check out the video below about Rocky and the school.  Nichol Chase, an anchor and ever smiling face on our time has been developing a creative and relevant curriculum called Yoga for Performers, which is open to the public and happening in November.  We are so thrilled to finally be working alongside our YOGAMAZÉ Apprentice and long time dedicated student, Steffany Vance. Steffany is one on an incredible list of Studio Teachers.  Catch her class at 9am on Saturdays.  There is no end to what I can say here about so many in our community.  However, I am aware that your patience may be finite, so we'll leave it there for now.  Check in with our Website to see more or if you want the full rundown.

Introduction to YOGAMAZÉ Emissary, Rocky Heron

My beloved Tracy and I will offer a 4 session online course, Yogi Business.  Tracy is a treasure chest of experience and wisdom in the business realm.  She has long kept quiet, and has worked tirelessly - happy for me to be in the front of the room.  This is yet another initiative that has long been on hold, swirling around in eddies, and gathering more and more depth.  So join me in welcoming Tracy into the seat of a YOGAMAZÉ teacher, and don't miss the program - it's full of worthwhile content.  

The kids are thriving. Madeline has courageously embraced Kindergarten and all it has to offer. I am proud and grateful beyond words to watch her spirit and confidence continue to unfold. She is a pure and sensitive soul, and a gift to this world. She loves art, swims like a fish and her teachers report that she plays, and shows a high level of care and sensitivity to everyone in her class. This weekend, when I was in Cleveland, she asked her mother, "Mommy, did Daddy travel safely?"

Oliver has started Nursery School and has transitioned very smoothly. He is naturally athletic, eternally mischievous and loves the color blue. He sweeps our back patio and skims the pool every day. He too is swimming like a pro. The other day when his mother called him a "little fishie," he didn't skip a beat before matter of factly admonishing "I'm not a fishie, I'm a SHARK!" Followed by chomping gesture. Tracy says he has my sense of humor. Apparently that's a good thing?

Tracy continues to be our goddess of manifestation.  Overworked, overstressed and under-rested.  I have begun practicing appreciation rituals for my bride.  She is the glue that holds us all together.  Not just my family, but our community of the heart.  She embodies the finest qualities of the heroines.  She is the champion of my family, my home, my life.

Me...well... I travel, teach, write curriculum, play with my kids and ride my bike when I can.  In yoga, water and bodies of water are a common metaphor for awakening and consciousness.  Fitting then that my best way into my life's current is via my practice of yoga. In practice as in life, I am sometimes held or carried in the current.  Those moments of being held in flow are meaningful and fleeting.  Sometimes I swim, empowered.  Sometimes I swim against and across the current, pushing back to avoid the real dangers and obstacles I am about to slam into.  Sometimes, in the gift of a moment, I feel no difference between myself and the current.  Those moments are rare.  In the meantime, I am dedicated to resisting the overwhelm of flood and drought. I am focused on tapping my spring with measured and efficient precision.  Sometimes I succeed.  Sometimes I fail.  When the water levels stabilize, I hope to be home more on Sundays.  I will make green juice again every day.  I will spend time alone every now and then with my incredible wife. I will cook and bake and take the kids rock climbing and camping.

Earth's balance is tenuous. The strain on her resources taxes all.  Our ability in a moment, a day or a season to hold our individual lives in stead, is likewise uncertain.  To survive, we call upon both strength and dexterity.  Like a good vinyasa practice, we tightly hold to the midline, while simultaneously attempting to flow easefully among and between opposing forces.  The spectrum ever wider as the pace moves ever faster. To thrive, we find our inner sources, and tap our inner Wellsprings.  It's not easy.  The water moves around.  Sometimes there is little to drink when you arrive tired and thirsty.  Sometimes it's time to build catchments for overflow.

Just after Madeleine was born Tracy and I endowed her with a spiritual name, which translates : "Water."  

In 2008, I wrote this blessing for my sweet daughter, and today I share it with you:

May you flow through the obstacles and challenges and joys of life with graceful ease, as the flowing waters find the pathways of least resistance. May you transmute and transform between different states and phases, solid to liquid to ethereal, but ever true to your essence. May you know when to be strong and unwavering, when to bend and flow, and when to expand sublime. May you be ever attuned to your own authentic nature, as the waters attune to the phases of the moon. May you revel at the peaks of the waves - at the pinnacles experiences of life's ecstatic possibilities - when the view is clear and expansive. May you savor the bottom of the waves, deep in the forest of feelings and thoughts, in the woven complexities. May you ever inspire us with your infinite expanse of living possibility.

Life is an ocean of infinite possibility.   

Tap your Spring.   

Saprema, Noah